[UA] Hello! And a campaing in the 20's...

[Axel Widén]

Hey there...

I've been lurking here for a few months now and enjoyed the majority of the
threads. Still browsing through the old archives now and then as well... I
discovered Unknown Armies through sheer syncronicity. Just walking into
a gamesstore for a look around, I found a book that literally screamed "buy
me!". Being the gullible type, of course I did. And man, was I blown away.
The game seems to have been written for me personally. :-) It was a natural
development from CoC into a more original, personal style of horror and
a great relief after being very dissapointed with some Albino Fleabag
material...

As for me, I'm a ninenteen-year old social science student from Sweden.
Love horror, love to read, love movies, been drawing, painting and sculpting
for as long as I can remeber, play drums and just can't seem to dislike any
music.

Now, to the point of my post...

I have been keeping Call of Cthulhu for quite some time, and this spring
my group finished the Horror on the Orient Express campaing. We have
gradually shifted to Unknown Armies rules, and have now made a total
conversion. One of the characters has also degenerated into a dipsomancer.
Now, what I wanted for the next campaing was a more player-controlled,
flexible thing. This summer, I wrote up some notes on a Chicago campaing
set in the twenties, and frankly I'm curious as to what you all think about
it,
and if a different historical setting for UA has been tried by anyone on the
list?

A short summary follows. First I will briefly mention the different groups
and
then proceed to discuss the plot. Note that this is not canon UA; I use a
great
deal of UA humanocentric magick, but the Lovecraft cosmology is still
present.
In short, humans have potential but are still _cosmically_ insignificant...
or
something. Ah well.

The Ones Hungry for Power...

THE CAPONE MOB: Based heavily on internet and library research, I have
tried to make a plausible portrayal of this nefarious (but very
fascinating!) character
and his group. Alphonse Capone, "Machinegun" McGurn, Jhonny Torrio and
Frank Nitti form the core of this group. Boozesmuggling and so on...

THE NORTH SIDERS MOB: Led by the historical gangster Dion O'Bannion,
this bunch is the primary enemies of the Capone Mob. Dion is an
entropomancer
and a dangerous psycopath, and leads the chaotic gang together with Bugs
Moran and Hymie Weiss.

THE HIDDEN THREAT: Here we go all CoC. Capones' irish wife Mae is a
genetically disguised Deep One hybrid from the City outside the irish coast.
The son of the pair, Sonny Capone, suffered from congenital syphilis. Yeah
right.
Here, he is one of the most powerful Deep One hybrids to walk the face of
the
Earth; only sixteen years old, but faster, stronger, smarter and more wicked
than any
man, and with an uncanny ability to see time as a whole and know just what
to do
when something threatens his plans. The purpose of this evil plot is to put
a powerful
Deep One at the top of a powerful, ruthless human organization. Ultimate
goal?
Making Humanity raise R'Lyeh.

THE GHOULS: Hidden under the HUGE slaughterhouse (hey Greg... GREG!)
known as the Union Stockyards in Chicago, where thousands of animals are
slaughtered every day and men wade through blood on the killing floor (I've
got
very wicked pictures...) is a clan of CoC Ghouls. The poor neighbourhood
around
the Stockyard called Packingtown is ripe with teeming masses of underclass
who
are forced to bury their dead in the gravel without cremation. The ghouls
are getting
divided, though... recently ghoulified Chicago gangsters have started to
kill the
living. The classic Delta Green ghoul conflict...

And the plot?

Things start with one of the PC's getting involved with the Capone mob. In
my case,
I played solo with one of the guys who had a PC killed during the previous
campaing.
A corrupt lawyer, he soon became known as the devils advocate after some
cases
of gangster defence.

Things start to get ugly when the North Siders sell a brewery to Johnny
Torrio (who is
the current head of the soon-to-be Capone Mob), a brewery which they know
will get raided the next day. Things get heated up, and gangwar erupts.
Things get VERY heated up when guys from the Capone Mob become victims of a
skilled entropomancer...

Capone freaks, and have the PC lawyer start digging everywhere for something
"like that"
to use against the North Siders in this new, strange underground war. After
a bunch of
useless (but fun) red herrings, the lawyer starts to connect a few dots and
discovers the
movement of a curious group of individuals round which unnatural phenomena
seems to
gather like moths to a flame; the PC group from the previous campaing. He is
contacted
by a dipsomancer who says he can "give him what he wants", in exchange for
unlimited
booze. This dipsomancer, Bob, manages to show his powers and a deal is made.
Bob
have the Capone Mob steal an urn of archaeologically preserved indian corn
beer and
uses the Major Charge to transport the PC's to Chicago (the Atlantic liner
they are on sinks, they escape in a life boat, fall asleep, and wake up
gliding ashore at night in Lake
Michigan...). They arrive just as the North Siders waste Bob and are about
to execute
the Capone guys. Dion understand that they are a threat to him and tries to
kill them
as well, and all hell breaks loose...ending up with Capone and the PCs
saving each others
lives and forming a loose alliance.

At least, that's how far we've played.

Lots and lots of intrigue revolve around the PCs personal goals, but here
are some of the
things I've planned no matter what:

The North Siders form a deal with the renegade ghouls, leading to all sorts
of interesting
new revelations and alliances...

Obviously, during this age of prohibition dipsomancers flock around
bootleggers. Rivalry? Uneasy friendship? Magickal development of the school?

Gradually, Capone will be corrupted by his "family" as he slowly realizes
that things
are not what they seem. An important part of the campaing will be for the
PCs to
prevent Capone from going insane and turn Cthulhu cultist. The thing that is
Sonny Capone is indeed the primary villain of the campaing, and the last
third of it will revolve around stopping him from reaching his horrible
goal.

Leopold and Loeb performed their legendary murder during these years in
Chicago. I
haven't thought of how yet, but I definitely think one could put a UA spin
on this
grisly event. Leopold was indeed a full fledged psycopath... posession?
Thanatomancy?
Something else? Thoughts? What's so interesting in this case is that it was
the first time
a snobbish society was shown in media that evil could dwell not only among
the poor...

Ah well, this is a very brief (and hurried!) summary but I wouldn't want to
waste too much bandwidth. Hope this can work as inspiration for some of you,
and of course I'm very curious as to what you think!

Comments?

Suggestions?

-Axel


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